Appellate eFiling comes to Wisconsin

The Wisconsin Supreme Court and Court of Appeals is receiving briefs, no-merit reports, petitions for review, and appendices in electronic form, thanks to a collaborative effort between CCAP, the appellate courts, and the office of the Clerk of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. 

The project, which has been nearly two years in development, took several steps to implement: the drafting and adoption of new procedural rules to govern appellate eFiling; the adaptation of CCAP's circuit court eFiling system to the appellate courts; the modification of the SCCA case management system to accommodate electronic documents; and the implementation of new clerk's office procedures.  It has been a sustained effort, culminating in the activation of the new system on July 1, the effective date of the new rules.

Under the new rules, the filing of an electronic copy of all briefs, no-merit reports, and petitions for review (and responses) is mandatory for attorneys and optional for the self-represented.  Electronic versions of appendices to these documents may be submitted to the court, but will not be required.

Once submitted and accepted for filing, eFiled documents will be available on-line to judges, court staff, the parties and/or their attorneys, and, in the case of briefs, to the general public. Appendices will not be available online.

Members of the public can view eFiled briefs by linking to the documents through the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals Case Access Web site.

Wisconsin's eFiling system is available to attorneys and self-represented litigants who want to file documents electronically through the court Web site, www.wicourts.gov.

Users need to select the "Appellate court eFiling" button on the right side of the screen, follow the link to "Go to the appellate court eFiling Web site," then "Create an account," and follow the directions. An attorney needs to register only once to use the eFiling system in the circuit court and appellate courts or to use the continuing legal education (CLE) reporting system.

During the first half of 2009, Supreme Court Clerk David Schanker has given presentations on the eFiling system and the new appellate rules to bar associations, the Department of Justice, the State Public Defender, and the Wisconsin Legal Assistants Association (in Milwaukee and Madison).  He was scheduled to present a "Webinar" on appellate eFiling through the State Bar of Wisconsin on July 9.  Instructional materials will also be available on the courts' Web site.

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